Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Automagically and other words that ought to be

I love that English is a language that grows and changes. One of my favorite YA books was "Frindle" by Andrew Clements. If you haven't read it, it's the story of a young boy who decides he is going to coin a new word for pen and see what happens and how widely used the word will get.

In our household, we coin words (and use words coined by others) all the time.

I love 'automagically'. I am certain I didn't come up with it--I honestly don't remember where I heard it, but it expresses to me the magic of certain mechanical processes.

Other coined words: def*cktive. Far more emotionally true to the experience of something not working that ought to and *needs* to work.

Then there are the invented slang words, a la cockney, that have sprung up in our household.

capybara

Yes, I know it's a large rodent. But it is echoes the rhythm and sound of 'happy belly'. When my kids were little, I would ask them if they had a 'happy belly' after eating, eg, are you full. That morphed into 'capybara', which we still say, even though the boys are teenagers.

My 15 year old has started to use 'Henry David' as a stand in for the word thorough. Thorough echoes Thoreau.

You can read samples of my novels (some in progress, some published) on Wattpad.

I've also been known to make pottery and give it away. :)

FYI: I have political biases. I am concerned with social justice, gender issues, and feminism. I will talk about this side by side with writing craft, pottery, and cute animal pictures.

P.S. Sadly, I know that the individuals this relates to are not the people reading this, so consider this my public venting. Most of the folks I have met on G+ have been interesting and wonderful; people I now count as my friends. However, I have increasingly been the recipient of private messages and emails from men, often not native English speakers, but not exclusively so, wanting to 'get to know me better'. These "hey baby" messages are from people who have never interacted with me, aren't in my circles, and have no connection with me or my interests. This is the internet version of the street cat-call and is at best, irritating, at worse, harassment. So I will not answer chat requests from anyone I do not recognize from my circles or from prior interactions on G+ posts.